From: Dick Fischer (dickfischer@earthlink.net)
Date: Mon Sep 08 2003 - 13:08:44 EDT
It was written::
>Is the bible truly reliable enough to defend with science?
The Bible is. Science is. Read a Biology book. It tells you about
life. Does it tell you how to live?
>But what about the natural world? Since the Renaissance four centuries
>ago, the growth of science (knowledge based on physical evidence and
>reason) has been explosive. This gives us a powerful tool to see whether
>or not the ancient writers had access to knowledge unavailable except
>through divine revelation. What a harvest of souls for Christ, if the
>Bible had correctly predicted the existence of neutrons, the age of the
>universe or the size and shape of the planetary orbits!
Hard to describe in Hebrew. Rejecters will always find reasons to
reject. " ... but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent"
the rich man cried out to father Abraham from the depths of hell. Do you
remember the answer? "If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets,
they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead" Luke 16:31.
Heb 11:3: "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the
word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do
appear." H'mmmm, now how did the bible writer know that?
>But instead, we find the biblical authors didn't know what they were
>talking about:
Even Daniel didn't know what he was talking about, but his words were for
another age.
>Geography:
>"Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and
>shewith him all the kingdoms of the world" Matt. 4: 8. Can any Christian
>name a mountain that would show all the kingdoms of the world at that
>time, including the kingdom of Kadphises 1 of the Kushans (Afghanistan),
>the kingdom of Kutakanna Tissa (Ceylon), and the kingdom of Kuang-wu- Ti
>(China)? The writer of this passage assumed that the Earth is flat. Do
>you believe it?
When I was in navigation training, one of my instructors told us: "We fly
over a flat earth depicted on a flat map. Remember that and you won't get
into trouble."
>"I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth" Rev. 7: 1.
>"The world also shall be stable, that it be not moved" 1 Chr. 16: 30. But
>the world is not flat, four cornered and motionless; the Bible is wrong.
>Belief that the Earth is a globe was a stock charge against heretics
>prepared for burning. (1)
The phrase should have been translated "four quarters" which was a common
expression. Gilgamesh reigned over the "four quarters" of the earth, for
example.
We modern folk say "world" every day without intending it to mean the
entire continental land mass of our planet. The wide "world" of sports may
"span the globe," but only covers sporting events. The "world" of
entertainment concerns films, TV, and stage plays. The "world" of fashion
includes cosmetics, hair styles, and clothing. So although we sometimes
mean planet when we say world, we may also use "world" to connote the
encompassing of all of a category of something. Bible writers did the same
thing.
"World" was sometimes used in the sense of planet (what little they knew of
it). In John 21:25, "I suppose the world itself could not contain the
books that should be written." Many times, however, the Bible authors used
"world" to mean just the human occupants. "But the world may know that I
love the father ..." (John 14:31). Also in John 3:16, "For God so loved
the world ..." applies to human beings living in the world.
>Astronomy:
>"And the stars of heaven fall unto the earth... And the heaven departed
>as a scroll when it is rolled together: Rev. 6: 13, 14...
Typical phenomenal language replete in Scripture. God "spreads his wings,"
did they think He was a chicken?
>Biology:
>"And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he
>is unclean unto you" Lev. 11:6. Hares (rabbits) have a single stomach, so
>they cannot make cud,
They do chew their own feces which is a similar form of recycling.
>and they don't have hoofs; they have feet which
>divide into toes. The Bible also speaks of four-legged birds (Lev.
>11:20),
From the NIV: "All flying insects that walk on all fours are to be
detestable to you." You could claim that insects have six legs, but if the
front two are considered as "arms," well, you get the picture.
> unicorns (Is. 34: 7)
Unicorns I haven't seen, but there are a lot of animals I haven't seen.
>dragons (Is. 27: 1) and other mythological creatures.
"In that day, the LORD will punish with his sword, his fierce, great and
powerful sword, Leviathan the gliding serpent,
Leviathan the coiling serpent; he will slay the monster of the sea" Lev. 27:1.
Are there no gliding serpents in the sea? The Lord doesn't wield a sword
as far as I know, but we should get the picture of divine judgment that is
being painted here.
>"The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed... Which indeed
>is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among
>herbs, and becometh a tree" Matt. 13:31, 32. The mustard seed is not the
>least of all seeds; many plants, such as the orchid, have smaller seeds.
>How could the Christian god fail to know basic biology?
It was an example of a tiny seed THEY KNEW ABOUT. Who in the audience knew
of orchids growing on Pacific islands?
>Evolution:
>Fossil evidence, radioactive dating and the study of biology have shown
>beyond all doubt that life on Earth has slowly changed over the course of
>four billion years. And Darwin's theory of evolution explains how this
>happened. Astronomers have also shown that the Universe is many billions
>of years old, and we now understand how stars and planets formed in our
>galaxy, and are still being formed as interstellar matter follows the
>observed laws of nature. It would have been easy for divinely-inspired
>writers to have outlined the formation of our Solar System and life on
>Earth in a simple, comprehensible fashion. Instead the book of Genesis
>makes the preposterous claim that the entire universe was created by
>divine fiat in six days.
Read this: <http://www.asa3.org/ASA/PSCF/1990/PSCF3-90Fischer.html>"The
Days of Creation: Hours or Eons?
>Medicine:
>Science has given us no greater benefit than our control over many of the
>loathsome diseases that have plagued humanity. We would expect that a
>loving, all-knowing god would have left simple instructions on basic
>sanitation and disease prevention that would have immeasurably eased our
>suffering. Instead we are given the tedious genealogies of Numbers, the
>pointless fantasies of Daniel and Ezekiel, and the meaningless lists of
>ritually-clean and unclean animals of Leviticus. No hint is given of the
>true cause of diseases.
God instructed in the Old Testament how to make soap by mixing animal fat
drippings with ash, the earliest recording of sanitation.
>Medical advances have been actively opposed by the clergy, as
>interference with the ways of a wrathful God. When Ethan Allen, the
>Revolutionary War hero was inoculated against smallpox, he was threatened
>with persecution for violating a local ordinance against it. (2) That
>disease, which horribly disfigured and killed millions of people a year,
>has now vanished from the face of the Earth thanks to modern medicine.
>According to the World Health Organization, leprosy will be eliminated as
>a public health problem in a few years, thanks to the drugs Clofazimine
>and Rifampicin. (3) What miseries could have been avoided if Jesus had
>done as much! Louis Pasteur and Florence Nightingale did more to benefit
>humanity than all the ministers, priests, rabbis, prophets and messiahs
>put together.
You are far too absorbed in the physical and have overlooked the spiritual
altogether. God has observed over 100,000 years of human death, 530
million years of animal death, and 3.8 billion years of physical death on
planet earth. He is concerned with how we live, not how long we live or
how we die. And He is far more concerned with your spiritual soul than
even you seem to be.
Just remember, there are no atheists in hell.
Yours in Christ,
Dick Fischer - Genesis Proclaimed Association
Finding Harmony in Bible, Science, and History
www.genesisproclaimed.org
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